Return to Go, an Alex the Fey Thriller by Claudia Hall Christian

Author:Claudia Hall Christian [Christian, Claudia Hall]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cook Street Publishing
Published: 2024-03-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-three

Five hours later

Wednesday early morning

June 23 — 2:22 a.m. MDT

Denver, Colorado

“Nothing,” said Miller Newman, Interpol senior researcher extraordinaire, on Alex’s video screen. “We’ve found plenty of the first image. This man appears to be a wealthy man from Louisiana. He’s given the name ‘Stephen Boudreaux.’ He claims to be a descendant of the Boudreaux family, who owned the Oak Vale Sugar Plantation in Louisiana.”

“They still do,” Alex said.

Miller Newman nodded. “Miller Newman” was a user name for this senior intelligence researcher. Most people’s names came from a combination of the most popular surname from the country they were born in. “Miller” was the most common surname in Ukraine as well as Germany. “Newman” was the most common surname from the Poland region. Alex happened to know that Miller Newman was from the Czech Republic. He looked as if he were in his sixties and sounded as if he were a British intellectual.

“We have an audiotape, but I’m sure that you do as well by now,” Miller Newman said.

Alex nodded.

“Does that help at all?” Miller Newman asked.

“Sort of?” Alex shrugged. “It’s good to have the confirmation. I’d hoped that you had more.”

“Magic doesn’t exist,” Miller Newman said.

Alex grinned at him.

“Nice to see you smile,” Miller Newman said. “How are the guys?”

“Okay,” Alex said. “As you know, it’s the most tightly wound that struggle the most with acceptance of what has happened.”

“Matty?” Miller Newman asked.

Alex nodded.

“Damn,” Miller Newman said. “I really like him.”

“Me, too,” Alex said.

“Before you say, ‘Getting back to this . . .” Miller Newman grinned at her. “We think that he’s been able to separate his personalities so completely that no one knows both of these personalities.”

“Russia?” Alex asked.

“No,” Miller Newman said. “We’ve checked their servers. They have what we have.”

“He’s not working for them,” Alex said.

“As far as we can tell, he’s not working for anyone,” Miller Newman said. “If we look at his fabricated backstory, we see . . .”

“Intergenerational wealth,” Alex said. “A plantation is a kind of business. The Oak Vale Plantation is possibly one of the oldest privately held corporations.”

Miller Newman nodded.

“He goes as a white man, but we don’t think that he is,” Alex said.

“Which fits with some plantation in his history,” Miller Newman said.

“Right, but which one?” Alex asked. “It would have to be fairly isolated from the modern world.”

“Good question,” Miller Newman said. “I’m going to tag it for one of our junior folks to find a still-working modern plantation. Isolated. Have you asked the Mister? He’s from this same background — looks white, family-owned slaves, isolated historic slave plantation owned by a single family.”

“They tortured his third child,” Alex said. “Badly. Cruelly. For fun. I doubt it’s someone connected with him. But I will ask him when I can.”

Miller Newman nodded.

“You know who he reminds me of?” Miller Newman asked. He squinted and then looked up at Alex. “George Smiley.”

Alex burst out laughing.

“You mean Le Carre’s spy?” Alex asked.

“Weird, eh?” Miller Newman asked.

“Very,” Alex said. “And, if we weren’t confident before, this definitely certifies you as a dinosaur.

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